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Special Features

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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Here's round two of Alice Faye's career at Twentieth Century Fox, five films that effortlessly capture the all-American appeal of "the lady with the velvet throat," as she is introduced in Four Jills and a Jeep. Until she simply walked away from film in 1945, Faye's star burned brightly in the nonsensical backstage musicals Fox churned out, a daffy World That Never Was. Only one title, Four Jills, is set in its era (1944), and it's not an Alice Faye picture--she pops up for a cameo, singing "You'll Never Know." The movie's actually about USO performers Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis, and Mitzi Mayfair, who really had toured in England and North Africa performing "for the boys." The rest of the films are firmly set in studio chief Darryl Zanuck's beloved past: Hollywood Cavalcade is a typical Fox nostalgia trip, set during the birth of silent cinema. Budding director Don Ameche builds his moviemaking career on the talent of his star (Faye), without noticing that she's in love with him. The film lets Buster Keaton stage a few slapstick sequences, and there are bits from silent-movie luminaries, including Ben Turpin, Mack Sennett, and Al Jolson. Jolson has a major role in Rose of Washington Square (1939), probably the most interesting film in the set. This one's a lightly-fictionalized version of the story of Fanny Brice's unhappy marriage to Nicky Arnstein (later the basis for Funny Girl), with Faye a very WASPish Brice and Tyrone Power the ne'er-do-well she just can't help lovin'. Faye tries Brice's signature song, "My Man," and Jolson does some of his signature stuff, including his blackface routine. In the event, Fanny Brice was not pleased; as a helpful DVD featurette explains, she sued and won.

E20 1941's The Great American Broadcast, directed by workhorse Archie Mayo, does for radio what Cavalcade did for silent pictures. This time John Payne and Jack Oakie are inventing the wireless network; Alice is a saloon singer whose crooning helps their plan succeed (but of course fails to impress Payne for far too long). Along with Faye's singing, some terrific numbers by the Ink Spots and the incredible Nicholas Brothers help this formula along. A big hit in 1943, Hello, Frisco, Hello brought Payne and Oakie back, with Alice once again waiting around for Barbary Coast entrepreneur Payne to notice that they're in love. This is where Faye's marvelous low, mellow voice introduced "You'll Never Know," which the movie wisely keeps reprising. Technicolor-ful to the point where you might need sunglasses, this is one of those loony, stupefyingly mush-headed musicals that make you wonder whether Hollywood had collectively gone mad, or possibly ingested hallucinogenic substances. The excellent prints for these films show off Fox's scrupulous studio style. No commentary tracks, but a selection of featurettes gives smart and relevant background for the movies. --Robert Horton

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The availability of a second collection of films of the charming Alice Faye is welcome. It seems that a new generation are discovering this quality performer and actress and this DVD collection is a worthy valentine to her legacy. Faye's films tended to follow a proven box office formula. She was quoted in later life as drily stating that they merely rotated her leading men as she constantly remade the same story. These films certainly support that view as all the cliches are on view, each with their own twist.

- first off is the 1939 "Rose of Washington Square". This is a dramatic musical with a more gutsy part for Faye than usual and an excellent role for matinee idol Tyrone Power as a heel. The story was based on the life of "Funny Girl" Fanny Brice who sued the studio for plagiarism. Al Jolson, as Faye's vaudeville buddy, and Faye sing superbly. The film was severely edited before release and many of the cut scenes survive, some of which have been included here.- next, also released in 1939, is the technicolour romantic comedy "Hollywood Cavalcade". This is a nostalgic look at the coming of talkies, a Reader's Digest potted history of Hollywood, with Faye's role based loosely on, among others, Mabel Normand, a silent screen comedian, and Don Ameche on Mack Sennett, a silent comedy director. The film is very well made with soft colouring and excellent performances by the leads but the director Irving Cummings, while meticulous, always directed at a plod. The best scenes are the Keystone Cop comedy recreations, not directed by Cummings, before the films descends into the usual cliches with Faye neglected by her leading man and wearing her heart on her sleeve.Read more ›

why in the world include a film in which Alice Faye is a guest star and is on screen less than five minutes with all the starring vehicles she did for Fox? It makes so little sense one suspects that the people putting these sets together are either idiots or just thumbing their nose at fans.

Sally, Irene, and Mary, Wake Up and Live, Sing Baby Sing ,You Can't Have Everything with Don Ameche and the Ritz Bros. - any of these would be much more valuable releases.Too much to hope that the Fox people read these posts and realize their "mistake".

Otherwise , this is is a great release with four terrific starring Faye vehicles long wanted by fans on dvd.

As a few others have mentioned, the inclusion of "Four Jills in a Jeep" is totally a misfire in this collection due to Alice Faye's 5 minute appearance. Why wasn't "Tin Pan Alley" included? That film was a huge hit in 1940 - and has Betty Grable! Or how about "In Little Old New York" with Fred MacMurray? I also want to mention that 3 out of the 5 films are available on VHS. The two that have never been available are: The Great American Broadcast and Hollywood Cavalcade. I have had bad "taped from TV" videos of these two films for years simply because they were never available commercially. One can only hope that by not including some of her never released to video films from the 1930s, that the big scheme (future volumes) will include some of those. I should also mention that "Hollywood Cavalcade" has no musical numbers.

It does seem like Fox is trying to milk this Alice Faye Collection franchise for at least another volume with several better entries being omitted. However, Fox is planning to release the films in this set separately, so you can bypass the films you think are of lesser quality or, in the case of "Four Jills and a Jeep", seem to have only a tangential relationship to Alice Faye.

Others have written the details of the films so I won't rehash. However, let me point out that "Hollywood Cavalcade" has Buster Keaton returning to a supporting role in a feature film for the first time after he was fired from MGM in 1933. He basically plays himself, however here he is in the role of a pie thrower - something he never did in his own films. There is a humorous story of how he surprised Alice Faye with the intensity of his pie attack, and how, after the scene was shot, she chased him for a good distance with her own pie in hand. Keaton did manage to outrun her. It's nice to know Alice's offscreen vitality matched what we saw in her films.

A Hollywood star of the 1930s and '40s, blonde, button-nosed Alice Faye had a sort of plain-jane, girl-next-door appeal. She was a demure singer with a cheerful onscreen presence, and starred in numerous mid-level musicals, often surrounded by a large ensemble cast and numerous guest performers. This is the second set of DVD reissues of her work at the 20th Century Fox studios, and includes a few frothy films from the early wartime years of WWII. It's pleasant, highly formulaic material from an earlier, innocent era. The films include:

"The Great American Broadcast" (1941) is a highlight of this set. This frothy, energetic comedy is a loose-with-the-facts fictionalization of how radio became the great American medium of the early 20th Century. Robust, good-natured John Payne (sort of the Brendan Fraser of his time) and comic sidekick Jack Oakie meet up around 1920 as two down-and-out World War One vets who share an interest in the then-new radio technology. Payne's character come up with the idea that maybe they could use this newfangled radio stuff to bring entertainment to people all across the country... and then they're off! Of course, there's gotta be a girl, too and enter the ever-blonde girl next door, Alice Faye, as the gal they both love. But it ain't a love triangle -- nope! -- it's a square, because rich-cad tycoon Cesar Romero wants her too.Read more ›